Astronomy 135: Descriptive Astronomy

Spring 2018 (4 credits) MWF 9:10-10am Abel 201

Prerequisites: None

Instructor: Dr. Matthew Duez

Office Location: Webster 947E
Phone: (509) 335-2396
Email: m.duez@wsu.edu
Office hours: Monday 2-3pm (or by appointment)

Required Textbooks
Astro 135 Lecture Notes by Duez, available online on the Astro 135 blackboard page.
• These are the notes that will guide the lectures. However, they are deliberately
incomplete. We will be filling out the drawings, graphs, and problem answers
during lecture. Please print out a copy of the notes before lecture and bring
them with you so you can fill them in as we go.
Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy 4th Custom WSU edition by Prather et al
• This book will be used for in-class group exercises, so please bring it to lecture.
Astronomy Laboratory Manual by Allen
• This book has the instructions for each of your labs as well as the questions to be
answered in your lab reports.
Extensive use will be made of the Astronomy 135 blackboard page. Blackboard will be
used to communicate homework, course notes, lecture preparations, practice exams, and
your grades.

Library Reserve Textbooks

19 books are on reserve in Olin Library under “Astronom 135”. Reading from these
books on the topics covered in class will be useful to many of you, but I do not find any
particular textbook so useful that you should be forced to buy it. Of particular interest
might be the two books most recently used as texts for this class.
The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett et al
21st Century Astronomy by Hester et al

Student Learning Outcomes

The purpose of this class is to introduce students to the scientific enterprise through a
study of astronomy. Astronomy is the branch of physics that concerns itself with
understanding objects in outer space: stars, planets, galaxies, black holes, and the
universe as a whole.

This is a class in descriptive astronomy, meaning it is intended to be accessible to non-

science majors. On the other hand, it is a science course, meaning a crucial goal will be
to help you learn to think scientifically about outer space. In classroom exercises, you
will learn to apply some of the concepts astronomers use. In labs, you'll replicate some
of the analysis they perform to learn about the universe.

If this class is a success, students will leave with a strong appreciation of the following:
• The nature of science—its power and limits
• the tricks scientists use to investigate distant regions of space and the distant past
—things like spectroscopy and parallax
• the physical concepts used to understand stars and planets: energy (potential,
kinetic, and thermal), equilibrium, stability
• the nature of stars and how we know what we know about them

The difference between Astronomy 135 and Astronomy 150

Both classes are astronomy survey courses, and WSU students can only get credit for
one. There is no guarantee that one class will emphasize any particular topic more than
the other, because instructors of both classes have a very wide discretion in choosing
material. The main difference is that Astronomy 135 contains a one-credit lab
component, and Astronomy 150 does not.

Tips on studying
The material in this class builds on itself, so it is important to keep up, or you will quickly
find yourself lost. Trying to learn everything right before exams is a bad idea. For one
thing, you will probably find that it’s too much to digest in a short time. Also, if you’re
not following along with the class, you won’t get the benefit of real engagement in the
lecture tutorial exercises, which is where a lot of the learning happens. Even if a friend
gives you the answers, you won’t understand the material as deeply as if you’d grappled
with it yourself, and you won’t be prepared to tackle new problems on quizzes and
exams. The weekly quizzes are, in fact, designed to force you to follow along; they also
focus your studying by giving you an idea what I think is really important.

The week before each exam, I will email the class a study guide listing vocabulary and
concepts with which I expect you to be familiar and types of problems I expect you to be
able to solve. I regard myself as bound by this guide. As a bare minimum, make sure
you can say something about each item. I also send out a practice exam, which has the
same format as the actual exam and questions of similar type and level of difficulty.

Very often, students who do poorly on the first exam express surprise. They really
thought they understood the material and were well-prepared. I find that the single
greatest studying skill students pick up (hopefully before they are too deep into the
semester) is accurate self-assessment. Figuring out whether you’ve understood a subject
is a skill that must be learned. The lecture-tutorial exercises, quizzes, and practice exams
provide an invaluable resource here. Check that you can do all the problems you’ve been
given, that you get the right answers, and that you understand why those answers and no
others are correct. (It’s very easy to talk yourself into thinking answer “A” is reasonable
when you’ve been told it’s the right answer. Make sure you cannot convince yourself
with similar arguments that answer “B” is correct.) If you’re having trouble
understanding how to do the exercises or understanding why a particular answer is
correct, then you have spotted a weakness that will hurt you on the exam.
Congratulations! This is expected, and the fact that you’ve identified a problem is a good
sign. Now you should talk about it with your TA or me in our office hours to get things
cleared up.

Grade Breakdown
Labs and lab write-ups: 30%
Weekly quizzes: 20%
Lecture preparations: 9%
Midterm 1 (February 16, in class) 13%
Midterm 2 (April 6, in class) 13%
Final (May 1, 7-10am in class) 15%

Labs
Labs will begin in the second week of class, and are scheduled according to section. Go
directly to Webster 249; do not come to the classroom. Attendance at the labs is
mandatory. Please bring a calculator to the labs.

If you miss a lab, it is best for you to attend another lab section that same week, and not
fall behind schedule (no documentation will be required). If you do go to another section,
please inform your section's TA about which lab you've attended. You can also attend a
make-up lab session; refer to the lab schedule. To attend a make-up lab session you are
required to bring a WSU Class Absence Form or similar document; these forms are
available from your counselor, coach, or supervising faculty member. You can attend any
lab section during the make-up lab week.

Lab Reports
Lab reports must be typed. A numeric answer should come with a calculation if one was
needed to attain that answer. A non-numeric answer should be expressed in a complete
sentence. All reports are due one week after your lab session performs the lab. So, for
example, students in session 2 will do a lab on Tuesday and turn in their report the next
Tuesday, while students in session 4 will do the same lab on Thursday and turn in the
report the next Thursday. Turn in your lab report to your TA at the beginning of the next
lab. The graded reports will be returned to you by your lab TA. You are graded on the
accuracy of your constructions and your ability to answer the questions in the lab manual.
These concepts are explained in more detail in the lab itself. Students within a lab group
should share data and calculations, but each student must answer questions in his/her own
words.

Each lab will be graded on procedure (correctly gathering the desired data) and
comprehension (answering the lab manual questions). Each of these two elements will be
graded on a 5-point scale.

5 excellent: careful & accurate data-taking / clear comprehension

4 decent: some sloppiness in procedure / ambiguity in answers
3 okay: multiple minor errors in procedure or answers
2 unsatisfactory: major errors
1 incomplete: major parts missing

Lab Sections
03 W 12:10-15
04 Th 9:10-12
05 Th 12-14:50
06 F 13:10-16

Quizzes
Each week, you will be given a set of roughly six homework problems. You will not turn
these in, and they will not be graded. However, you will have a quiz at the beginning of
each lab session (except the first), and the questions on the quiz will be taken from the
homework.

Lecture Preparations
The day before each lecture, a short reading will be posted on blackboard with a question
at the end. Please turn in your answer at the beginning of the corresponding lecture. You
will not be able to submit these assignments at any other place or time. To get credit, you
must provide your name and lab section number . If you must miss lecture, email Prof.
Duez ahead of time with your reason so that you don’t lose points.

Grade distribution
Below is a rough guide to how numerical grades will correspond to letter grades. If the
median score falls below a B-, I will curve grades upward.
A 88-100%
B 75-87
C 63-74
D 50-62
F < 50
Academic Integrity
Students may discuss and work together on assignments, but all submitted work must be
original and individual. Academic dishonesty, including all forms of cheating, plagiarism,
and fabrication, is prohibited as stated in the WSU Handbook. (See http://
conduct.wsu.edu/.)

WSU Disability Statement

Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability.
Please notify Dr. Duez the first week of class of any accommodations needed. Late
notifications may cause requested accommodations to be unavailable. All
accommodations must be approved through Disability Resource Center (DRC),
Administration Annex 205, 335-1566.

WSU Safety
For WSU’s general safety statements, see http://safetyplan.wsu.edu.
For current safety alerts, see http://alert.wsu.edu.
For advice on dealing with emergencies, see http://oem.wsu.edu/emergencies.

Course Outline

Here are the topics I’d like to cover in this course and the order I plan to follow.
Week Topics Lab
1. Units and optics None
2. The night sky Planetarium
3. Seasons and moon phases Celestial Sphere
4. Spectra and Kirchhoff’s laws Practice night sky problems
5. Spectral lines and doppler effect Intro to Spectroscopy
6. Scattering, Exam 1 Makeup labs 1
7. Blackbody radiation Solar energy flow
8. Measuring properties of stars Spectral classification 1
9. The HR diagram Spectral classification 2
10. Spring break None
11. The sun as a stable equilibrium Practice inferring properties
12. Stellar evolution Properties of stars
13. Exam 2 Makeup labs 2
14. Light travel time Cluster main sequence fitting
15. Expansion of the universe Hubble’s Law
16. Review for final Makeup labs 3